An Indian heads Mecca of IT – Is it An Accident or A Natural Corollary?
Asoke K. Laha
President & MD,
Interra IT
The good news is that an India-born techie is now heading the top IT firm in the world – Microsoft. The bad news is that I had to rewrite the column three times to catch up with the fast developments. The news that made the round initially mentioned only about Satya Nadella, who finally made it to the top. A day after his name cropped up as a possible CEO, another Indian’s name also came to the fore – the Chennai-born 41-year-old Pichai Sundarajan for heading the IT behemoth. I do not know when he lost the race. And a few days back, the cloud had become clear and Satya was named. I always thought that the selection process will not be completed that soon. Zeroing in on persons for such coveted posts, I thought, will always be a time-bound one. There will be a selection committee, then interviews of the shortlisted people and that too several rounds and final pick-up and the paraphernalia that follows. Let me confess that every time news was breaking, I was changing my plot and that is why I said I had changed this column extensively thrice and hope that I need not have to change again.
Satya’s elevation to the top post excited me like any other Indian. Perhaps, the reasons for me to rejoice may be different from others. First and foremost, I feel proud that Satya’s alma mater is not the prestigious IIT and he did not have any orientation in the mighty IIMs. He passed out his engineering from lesser-known Manipal Institute of Technology, tucked in the sylvan Western Ghats. Could it be because that I did not have an IIT or IIM orientation to hype? I do not know. But in my heart of heart I feel proud that a person like me hailing from an ordinary middle-class family and having education mostly from nondescript schools and lesser-known engineering college (I studied engineering at Jadvapur University in West Bengal) can scale up to become an IT entrepreneur.
The other day, I was listening to the NDTV award function, wherein they had decorated around 25 people – who’s who – from different walks of life. I was, indeed, touched by the revelation of the Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry in 2009 Prof. Venkataraman Ramakrishnan, who admitted that he sat for IIT entrance and could not clear the examination. He went on to bag the highest recognition in science. That takes me to the point: Is it the time to demystify the relevance of the hallowed organizations and Ivy Leagues? It is no way to lessen the academic excellence of these institutions. I am of the opinion is that we have to shun the mindset that only people from these organizations could make it to the top. Is the old school ties and myths attached to them are things of the past? At least, I feel so. I hope Nadella’s elevation to the top post will inspire millions of students across the world, which could not pursue their academics in hallowed organizations and to make grades in their career.
There is a trend among the media to romanticize about the capabilities of a person and link him with hallowed organizations. One newspaper claimed that four out of the 13 Indian global heads are from a particular college in Delhi, claims to have contributed the largest number of bureaucrats and other personalities to the country. My short and simple question to them is: which organization that the doyens of Indian industry – G. D. Birla, Jamshed Tata and Dhirubhai Ambani – did go: Which management theory that they chased while building industrial empires? Without encroaching the political arena, it is pertinent to ask the alma mater of the present-day political leaders. Most of them had their education in humble surroundings and viscidities of their early life prevented them from going for higher schools of learnings or even completing their formal education. How are they inferior to the modern-day boys who have a relatively better opportunity for quality education? .
Now let us take education. In ancient times, India was known for its universities and higher schools of learning. Apart from Nalanda and Takshila, we had other schools of higher learning, which were highly acclaimed by foreign travellers who had visited India. Scholars from all over the world assembled here and informed debates and intellectual discourses were made in philosophy, Ayurveda, mathematics, astronomy and what have you. There are historical evidences to show that such higher schools of learning existed at a lesser scale during the Mughal period. Often, we hear about the great university in Alexandria, which had its alma mater like Socrates, Plato and Pythagoras. Remnants of such glorious past were chronicled. But the lesser known fact is that, centuries before such intuitions had sprung up, Indians had invented the value of “zero” and “decimal point”, the basics of Mathematics. Also, there are evidences to point out that cotton, the wonder plant, was first sown in India and a textile weaving was present in India from time immemorial.
Though we claim that we have come a long way from that, we are still trapped in the vestiges of the colonial hangover. If it is not so, how millions of the people from remote towns and villages are denied of quality education even after 65 years of Independence. Why our young graduates go to the US and other countries to hone their skills and move up in the career chain? Why every time, the surveys point out that most of the students from unknown colleges and institutions are unemployables? One can go on posing questions, but no one seems to know answers. In the process, thousands of home-grown Satyas, Sunderrajans, Chatterjees and Reddys are perishing. Let us at least create an environment for their progenies to bloom creatively, intellectually, economically and socially. Otherwise, they will have other schemes up in their minds!!
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